According to legend, in 1796, George Washington asked Betsy Ross to sew the first version of the American flag.  Yet unlike during the Republican National Convention, when protesters began burning the descendant of the very flag Betsy Ross originally sewed, during the Democratic National Convention, protesters began burning the blue, white, and not red Israeli flag.

Here in the United States Americans are free to desecrate the any flag in any way, whether they burn, stomp, or spit on it.  In Israel, they would not have the right to burn the Israeli flag without getting incarcerated.  Earlier in the year, the Knesset passed a law that states that anyone who is caught “dishonoring the state flag” can be imprisoned for up to three years, with additional time if they were burning it.

Here in the United States, we are free to burn our stripes any way we like.  The First Amendment of the United States Constitution written by our founding fathers more than two centuries ago states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

That is exactly why in the year 1989, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant in Texas v. Johnson.  Texas, who at the time had a law that prohibited desecrating the flag, was suing Johnson, who burned the United States flag during a protest.  Since the lawsuit, a bill called the flag-burning bill was repeatedly tried in the Senate, with the last attempt to pass the bill in 2016, when the bill was not passed by one vote.

I have always looked up to the flag of the United States as a symbol of achievement.  Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon are represented by the flag that stands on the surface of our moon.  The freedom of African-Americans not to be enslaved is represented by our flag, which to this day stands on the battlefields where the Union fought Confederates who defended slavery.

And more than that our flag for me is a sign of achievement, from thirteen colonies to fifty states, including the diverse islands of Hawaii and Puerto Rico.  While the fifty stars and thirteen stripes are eaten by the flames, every one of the diverse states, every one of the battles we fought for our freedom and liberty, is being devoured and denounced.  A veteran who recently protested a flag burning event said, “I will stay here until this is all over. ... All throughout history, flags have represented the battlefield.  And it was around the flag that everybody came together.  At the end of the battle, there was one flag left standing.” 

When we burn flags, we are desecrating what the flag stands for and not the piece of cloth being burned.  Most often people burn flags during political protests that do not represent what the flag does.  When burning our flag at a political protest, the flag becomes a sign of division and not unity.  The flag, a flag, any flag, represents the country that designed it.  The flag of the Islamic State (ISIS) militia represents murder, rape, and violence that ISIS conducts daily.  Our flag represents unity – no matter what our political beliefs are, no matter what religion we affiliate with (or if we affiliate with one at all), we still remain standing together to defeat our enemies hand in hand, as the fifty United States of America.

So let us take example from Israel.  Let’s not desecrate the only symbol in the world that represents as much freedom and unity as the red, white, and blue on our flag.

Batya Goldberg blogs at Republican@15.